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Delve One Part 3: Frienemies

Back in the passageway, with the door closed again, they decide how to proceed. Looking up the way, they see a “T” section and take the left passage. Ahead, they see some lights coming from a room with some shadows moving around, but they’re too far away to see what it is. As they get closer, they can see some kobolds moving around in the room and the sounds of work can be heard. The room is covered in large carvings of stone faces with oversized, gaping mouths. A group of about four of the kobolds are clustered around an upturned stone tile in the middle of the room while another five or six are making rough patches in cracks in wall carvings. None of them have seen any of the party yet, being intent on their duties. Sieglinde, hearing the rough Draconic of their yapping speech decides to simply approach and greet them.

Kobold

“Oh, hey…” They say after hearing her voice. They all stop what they’re doing and sort of skootch together a bit more. The ones working on the floor slowly put the flagstone back in place. “Did you guys need something?” They ask, seeming caught between wanting to run away or fight. As Sieglinde talks to them, all the rest of the party can hear is a strange rasping, yapping sort of sound. She asks them who they got their orders from and they tell her, “We get our orders from Trustee Sniv. We always get our orders from Trustee.” Then she asks them about the oracle. “Oh, Rocky? Yeah, Rocky’s a good guy. How’s he doing?” They seem to visibly relax when Rocky is mentioned. In fact, they seem a bit more comfortable with the presence of the party in general. Sieglinde says they’re just going to continue on through and the kobolds say, “OK. Sounds good.” The party then walks into the next room which is covered with the same stylized faces, except they all have normal sized mouths but huge, bulging eyes. As they enter this room, one of the kobolds yells at them, “Look out for the dragon!”

Other than the freaky walls, this room appears to be empty, so they continue on. The only other exit is into a passage that immediately turns to the left and continues straight for a long way. Something about it seems fishy, so Foxfire and Sieglinde attempt to search for anything unusual down the path. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, Foxfire takes point… And falls directly into a pit trap that was very well hidden in the middle of the passageway! Taking some bruises, she gets up and climbs up the rope offered by one of her companions. Everyone jumps across successfully and they find themselves standing in front of another closed door.

Not one to fix what ain’t broke, Sieglinde uses Thaumaturgy on the door again. It SLAMS open and a cloud of dust envelopes the party as the echoes reverberate down the long hallway. Inside is a small storage room, full of boxes and barrels and moth eaten sacks. By the looks of it, it’s obviously gone undisturbed for decades, at least. Futzing about inside, they find some useful adventuring gear: a section of good rope, a well crafted bedroll, and three intact, full flasks of lamp oil. While doing so, they hear the guttural grunts of the Goblinoid language being spoken by some orcs further down the hallway, and they’re headed their way!

Orcs!

They quickly hide inside the storeroom, not closing the door for fear of the orcs seeing or hearing it move. Breathlessly, they wait as the orcs get closer. They can hear them stop somewhere outside the door which is also close to the pit trap, obviously tripped sometime recently. The orcs laugh and say something in goblin then they all laugh together some more. They can be heard to jump over the pit, one by one (it sounds like four of them) and then continue on down the passageway towards the room with the bulging eyes.

When they think the coast is clear, the party leaves their hiding spots and keeps walking away from where the orcs went, and towards wherever, or whoever, it was they came from…